You do all know about http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ - right?

Doug

I'd say dirt. Given that these sky images get a particularly heavy ammount of abuse when stretched to become the JPG's we see, I doubt that a calibrated image would show even 1% of the diversity of brightness that these JPG's show.

Doug

I think they just want to be 100% sure on REALLY interesting things with follow-up ground based obs with spectroscopy before going "WE FOUND AN EARTH"

Doug

I've tried to go through the program thinking 'hmm - what do 'they' want me to tell them about' - they being readers of the blog, which means, in part, you guys. That hardest part is the number of interesting sessions you have to ignore. I had to abandon something about a lunar landing geodesy payload - to see something about a south polar lunar landing concept. Go figure

Doug

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001089/

That's about it - it was more 'CoRoT will be great when we get our ground software finished' than 'Look - Exo-Earth's!'

Doug

Perhaps it's wrong - but because I'm at Europlanet and really busy - I'm kind of glad to have a few weeks of 'rover holiday' . I like new pictures and driving and want these things to last forever....but the break has been kind of nice - a bit like an extra Solar Conjunction.

Or am I the only one who thinks that?

Doug

Or the CONTOUR kick stage

Doug

Cubesats are a well established and popular platform ( you'll even find extensive info about them here )

It's 10 x 10 x 10 cm and no more than 1kg

You can extend the platform into a double or triple cubesat ( 10 x 10 x 20 and 10 x 10 x 30 , 2 and 3kg respectively) for added performance.

Doug

I think a sample cache cannister would have a small battery and a beacon radio.. It'd be interesting to know how much intelligence was required on the 'dumb' part of the recent DARPA orbit rendezvous demos when doing the automated undocking and redocking.

Here's a thought. You could make your sample cache a derivative of a cube sat.

Doug

It's not 'defeated' - I mean, there's merit to making as few manouvers in the system as possible. If you could make a spacecraft with the necessary Delta V and entry ability to do the Mars to Earth flight - but <10kg - perhaps it could be done - but I'd want my return vehicle to be very big, very reliable, and packed full of redundent systems.

Doug

Well - yes - carnage indeed. Instead of a 5kg litle satellite to launch from the surface - you have to land, and then launch again - a much larger launch vehicle, to launch not only the small sample cache but also a complete, fueled, spacecraft and entry capsule - able to not only enter the Earth's atmosphere at the other end - but navigate with TCM's between Mars and Earth. A full up proper spacecraft - perhaps 100kg (complete guess). Landing and then launching your return capsule is not easier.

You're making the requirements of the MAV an order of magnitude larger - and thus the landing requirements an order of mag larger (when we don't know how to land >750kg on the surface) and thus the first launch vehicle from Earth being an order of magnitude larger....which doesn't really exist

I think from a biohaz perspective (even if it's just paranoia) - taking a small cache from orbit, putting it into another large entry capsule that is then sealed makes a lot of sense. If you have the entry capsule on the surface, you've exposed it to the Martian environment as well.

I can perhaps see the case for single launch - a viking like split between lander and orbiter, and then then a re-rendezvous on orbit for the return to Earth - but taking EVERYTHING you need to get from Mars back to Earth ( a complete spacecraft) all the way to the surface and back makes the entire problem much more difficult than it needs to be. Also- orbit rendezvous and return offers the option for multiple samples collected and launched from multiple sites to be returned via a single orbiter.

The orig. poster has already made his mind up it seems, going on the file name. That's somewhat premature. I see a lot of internal reflection, I see an image that needs a LOT of interpretation- and a starfield that needs cross referencing to identify what's actually supposed to be in this field and what isn't.

It took two years, flat out, to get from Endurance to Victoria. The dunes north of Erebus were slow, nasty driving. I can't imagine a scenario where you would want to re-encounter that terrain.

Yup. Email sent

A very slow, but steady, drop. The background colour gradient is based on the RGB values of the sky in that amazing sky-survey mosaic that they released a few weeks ago.

Doug

"We now join together in saying the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples, saying together:-...."

Oh God, why did I go to Milton Keynes.

Doug

Quite often I'll be researching for a talk, and googling for a subject - only to find myself linked into UMSF again... 'NO...I KNOW that bit already!'

Doug

Fog - a Ford Focus - and 28,000,000 roundabouts.

Doug

Officially signed up for S196 :0

Doug

Subejct edited to remove typically over dramatic New Scientists headline.

Doug

But the Viking engineers and scientists did on landing night.


Doug

He was already there We got utterly, entirely, totally lost on the way back from food to his hotel though.

Doug

GO SPIRIT
BEAT VIKING

Tried a bit of automated Meteor hunting last night. Got perhaps 4 or 5 on 'film' in >400 30 second exposures. (thank god for digital) - This is the only one that's both bright AND fully in frame .

Doug

Oh - and just for a laugh, between ISS passes - I aimed at Polaris and did a 2 minute exposure at ISO 800, 70mm, F4.5. The best I could do to get tracking on my DSLR is to find a target that doesn't NEED tracking

Doug